Tuesday, November 1, 2016

PSTET / ETT: Posts exceed applicants, yet protests continue

Chandigarh, October 30In a paradoxical situation, unemployed elementary teachers and the state government are at loggerheads even though the number of posts are higher than eligible candidates.The Punjab Department of Education has advertised posts for Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) teachers in two phases in less than nine months. As per norms, only those ETT teachers are eligible to be appointed as permanent teachers, who have cleared Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).Since 2001, when the state had begun conducting TET, around 5,600 ETT teachers have qualified the screening examination. However, the state government, for the first time since 2006, has advertised 6,505 posts of ETT teachers since December 2015. Thus, 900 posts are surplus.“About 4,500 posts were advertised at the fag end of 2015. The recruitment process against these posts was completed in the second week of September. Again, in August 2016, the Department advertised 2,005 more posts, counselling for which was conducted recently. Now, the point of contention is that the Department is allowing even those teachers to appear in counseling for the second set of posts who have got job in the first lot. As the first phase of recruitment was marred by litigation, a large number of such candidates have secured jobs in the second phase. This also included those who could not get duty stations near their hometowns in the first phase,” said Lalit Kumar, an affected teacher.However, Balbir Singh Dhol, Director, Public Instruction (Secondary), said “The fears of the protesting teachers are unfounded. If any teacher opts for a job in the second lot, a teacher in the waiting list will automatically get a job. Moreover, since separate advertisements were issued for both phases, it is not possible to fill posts of both the lots by following a singe merit list. We can’t debar any eligible candidate from appearing in interviews for the posts advertised in the second lot.”